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Porterdale Mill on the Yellow River |
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Porterdale Mill on the Yellow River |
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| It would be interesting to learn
the description of work performed by each of our VIP's. We
would like to hear from you telling us exactly what you did while
working for the Bibb. Please email it to: |
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Sent: 3/4/2004 10:25:20 PM
Subject: Re: Porterdale
It just dawned on me that most folks don't have any idea of what (work-wise, that is) went on in the mills. I've never tried to find a book that described mill activities, though I have seen quite a few photos made in mills. It would be interesting to hear folks describe their jobs - if there are any such folks left.
I have a small embarrassing story to tell about my 3-month
stint working 3rd shift in Osprey mill. I helped maintain the
Barber-Coleman Automatic Spoolers, huge mechanical wonders that
took string off bobbins, automatically tied the ends to the
previous string, and wound it onto larger rolls that would then
be mounted, in large numbers, on a machine that then took all
their strands and wound them in parallel on a large "beam" which
then was put on a loom to weave cloth. The machines I worked on
were adjacent to the spinning room. There, soft "roving" was
twisted into string on rapidly spinning bobbins. The spinners'
job was to service many spindles and connect the already-spun
material on the bobbins to more roving to make a very long
single strand. To do this, the spinner would take the end of
the already-spun twisted material and just touch it to the new
roving. The twisting string would grab the roving instantly and
the spinning would continue. It was done so quickly, you could
barely see it happen. The spinners (mostly women) would walk
the length of the spinning frames and "put up ends" pretty much
without stopping. I asked if I could try it. Big mistake! I'd
have to say I didn't spend a lot of time trying, but I never
put up a single end! (Someone may be able to correct my
terminology if it's wrong.)
John Day |
